WHERE WE ARE ON APRIL 17, 2013: Still need $14,602.33 to meet $170,050 yearly goal by April 15, 2014 ($1,216 per month - 12 months from April 1, 2012 - April 1, 2013)

Savings Goals:
Hubby's paychecks $2,478 X 26 wks = $64,428
My savings $1,500 mo. X 12 = $18,000
By March 1, 2014 hubby and I should meet our savings goal of $175,050 and have $50,097 in extra savings (this will give us an emergency fund of $80,097). Next year we hope to convert the remaining $100K of the real estate IRA into a roth and will need about $45K to do that. We will easily be able to meet that goal during 2014!

WHO ARE WE (money wise)?
I am a wife and mother of two grown sons. I own a business & my husband has a good job and we have done some things right (pd. off mortgage, pretty good 401Ks, more than $100,000 in savings, 9 mostly paid off rental houses (10 units). Previously we used a VISA card but now we are only using our debit card.

Most people would say we are in great shape which we are, however, I also have a tendency to overspend money at times (sometimes I worry I have a spending problem).

I want to learn to appreciate what I have and stop frittering money away. With me it is usually either wild overspending or total frugality. I want to learn to live a more balanced financial life, in the middle.

SPENDING/SAVINGS GOALS:
* Continue to stay off EBAY!!! DONE
* Write down all expenditures DONE
* Continue to use the debit card, not the charge card GOT RID OF CHARGE CARD! DONE
* FIND OUT WHAT WE NEED TO LIVE EACH MONTH! Develop a spending plan. DONE
* Continue to save my DH�s
paychecks and live on mine
DONE
INVESTMENT GOALS:
* Gather all figures for 401K,
IRAs, banks accounts DONE
* Create a Net Worth Statement DONE
* Use real estate (rentals) to produce income of $7,000 a month in income tax free

GOAL: Turn the rental account into a ROTH in 2013 so all rental income will be tax free. This is a BIG savings goal for us! We need $120-$160K to pay the taxes on this 400K account. (we have have to convert 280K of the account this year and 100K next year so we will still have some emergency fund money left)

INVESTMENT GOALS: Get our 401K invested in safe mututal funds
FEB - Created a plan and are dollar cost averaging to get back in over the next six months.

The Maids Just Came...

January 30th, 2011 at 04:49 pm

My DH and I went to the Marriott last night for our free night. It was a very nice hotel with lots of granite, plushy king bed and lots of amenities. The wonderful buffet breakfast they serve was $15 each so we decided to skip that as we had succumbed to an in-room movie which was $14.95!! We went home and I made avacado, cream cheese and sprout sandwiches and a salad...to me anything with avacados is a treat!

RENTAL HOUSE PROGRESS. We have decided AGAINST the expensive rental house as everyone we talked with wondered about our getting $1,800 a month rent here in Kansas. That is a very high dollar house for this part of the country. We may lose the $1K we put down as earnest money...hope not, but that would be better than getting in over our heads. At noon today we went with our realtor to see two other repos that cost about $75K each with other houses in the neighborhood on the market for $125K. Either would rent for around $1,000 a month so either of these would probably better meet our needs for income in retirement. I hope we don't lose the $1,000...ouch!!!! Again, we had to make the decision to purchase quickly since we discovered the house on the last day of the bids. I am learning that making FAST financial decisions can be costly...S-L-O-W DOWN QUEEN!!!

MAIDS CAME! Our "Maids" came today. That's my term I use for when DH and I clean the house. Pretty much everyone I know in my neighborhood has a cleaning lady and I did for a few months about six months ago, but I never could see spending $100 every two weeks for something we could so easily do ourselves so I gave her up. We pretty much keep things picked up so when we are ready to clean we set the timer for 30 minutes. He vacuums and I do everything else. In that amount of time (total one hour between us), we can clean our entire first floor which is mostly where we live. Later this week I will set the timer for 20 minutes and we'll clean the basement. We never use the second floor unless the boys are coming home. When the boys lived here, with all four of us, in half hour we could pretty much clean the entire house.

STILL COUNTING! I am still writing down my numbers...all income and everything we spend in a little memo pad I carry in my purse. It is AMAZING the difference this makes. We have only been on this new financial way of life for one month but we have MUCH more money at the end of the month then we usually do. I am also tracking things in MINT.COM.

I get nervous wondering if I can keep this up, but then I remember my DA program teaches me to do the right thing, JUST FOR TODAY. When you live right one day at a time, the tomorrows take care of themselves.

Thanks also for everyone in this blogging community. Reading your stories gives me good ideas and also ammo against our consumption-oriented society.

6 Responses to “The Maids Just Came...”

I'm glad you thought through the rental decision, I have been there before and I have also lost earnest money as well. At least you figured it out before the sale. I also get really excited about opportunities and sometimes jump the gun, it can be expensive!

Thanks all of you for your kind words about my $1000 loss. At least it wasn't a $200,000 one!! Also, I will never again put something out on this blog and tell people I don't want to hear their true opinions. The day I first posted about my expensive rental I asked everyone to not give me negative feedback. If I hadn't said that I may have REALLY looked at this deal earlier and saved my $1000. Julie, I know you see rentals in the cold light of reality and past experience and I think I needed a little of that.

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